The Belfast Telegraph’s online platform belfasttelegraph.co.uk was named the best regional website in the UK last night as the annual Online Media Awards were handed out in London.
Five regional newspaper websites were in the running for the award alongside two hyperlocal sites and two local portals operated by national broadcasters.
But the Bel Tel, which was also shortlisted for the best design award, emerged victorious in the category ahead of the Glasgow-based Herald & Times group platform heraldscotland.com.
Both heraldscotland.com and BBC East Midlands’ Leicester portal, bbc.co.uk/news/england/leicester, earned commendations
Also nominated in the category were the South Wales Argus, Lancashire Telegraph and Southern Daily Echo websites, in the case of the Argus for a second year running.
Other nominees were Sky TV’s Tyne and Wear site and hyperlocals soglos.com and thelincolnite.co.uk.
The Lincolnite, owned by Stonebow Media, also received the chairman’s award from Noel Young, chairman of the judges.
Noel commented; “For me this is a unique and imaginative site, it delivers local news where the people are. I thought it was very neat.”
The awards, organised by media website The Drum, were handed out in a ceremony at Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium.
The full list of winners was as follows:
Website of the Year (Grand Prix): Channel 4 News/ITN
Chairman’s Award: Stonebow Media for thelincolnite.co.uk
Online Editor of the Year: Carla Buzasi, Editor in Chief at The Huffington Post UK
Digital Writer of the Year: Dave Gilbert, Technology editor at International Business Times UK
Outstanding Digital Team of the Year: Channel 4 News web team
Best Freelance Writer: Teo Kermeliotis, CNN
Best Site for News-Led Journalism: Channel 4 News/ITN for channel4news.com/news
Best Specialist Site for Journalism: Emap for Nursing Times
Best Local/Regional News Site: Independent News & Media (NI) for belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Best National/World News Site: The New York Times for Global.nytimes.com
Best Campaigning / Investigative Journalism: Times Newspapers Ltd for The Times Tax Avoidance Investigation
Best Commentary/Blogging: Times Newspapers Ltd for The Times School Gate blog
Best Video Journalism: BBC News website for BBC News On Demand
Best Designed site: Reuters for reuters.com/widerimage
Best Twitter feed: Channel 4 News/ITN for Jon Snow Channel 4 News @jonsnowC4
Best Use of Social Media: Channel 4 News/ITN
Best Use of Crowd Sourcing or Citizen Journalism: The New York Times for Watching Syria’s War
Best Brand Development: Metro for Metro Digital Editions
Best Commercial Innovation: Toronto Star for Star Dispatches
Best Use of Photography: Reuters for The Wider Image
Technical Innovation: Channel Four Television Corporation for Scrapbook
Best App : The Economist for The Economist on iPad, iPhone and Android and Sky News for Sky News for iPad
Best Lifestyle / Leisure News Site : Hearst Magazines UK for goodhousekeeping.co.uk and MSN UK for MSN UK
Best Business / Finance News Site: Agrimoney.com
Best Health / Education News Site: BACP for TherapyToday.net
Are you kidding me? The Bel Tel’s website looks like they got it from a budget webpage provider. It looks cheap, boring and completely lacking in imagination. Who judges these things?
I think I’ll enter my fishing club’s site next year. It looks much better than that guff.
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